Federal government will ship Covid vaccines to pharmacies next week

WASHINGTON – The US will begin shipping doses of the Covid-19 vaccine directly to pharmacies next week as Biden’s government continues to expand how and where Americans can be vaccinated.

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The first delivery of 1 million doses will go to 6,500 stores from Feb. 11, said Jeffrey Zients, the Covid-19 coordinator of the Biden administration.

States were left by the Trump administration to establish their own distribution plans and some chose to use pharmacies in their states to administer the vaccine to certain groups, such as health professionals.

Pharmacies that receive the vaccine directly from the federal government must still follow their state’s guidelines to determine which populations should receive the injections. Americans should visit their local pharmacy website to schedule an appointment if they fall into one of their state’s priority groups, he said.

The first pharmacies to receive the federal government’s vaccine will be the ones best placed to reach people at high risk for serious diseases and “socially vulnerable” populations, Zients said.

Ultimately, 40,000 pharmacies across the country will receive shipments of the vaccine, but Zients has not said when he expected that to happen. To date, hospitals and state health departments have administered the vast majority of vaccine doses.

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“The first phase of activating local pharmacies will generate more weapons,” said Zients. “It will ensure pharmacies have the infrastructure and experience they need to scale up as vaccine offerings increase in the coming months.”

In addition to the 1 million doses the administration plans to send to pharmacies, they also plan to send 10.5 million doses per week to state governments for the next three weeks. The Biden administration has increased the number of doses sent to the United States by 20 percent since it took over the vaccine distribution program on Jan. 20.

President Joe Biden has committed to giving at least 100 million shots in his first 100 days in office and said he hopes that number will reach 150 million. So far, 32 million doses have been administered since the first vaccine was approved on December 11.

Zients said the severe weather in much of the northeastern United States has not slowed the federal government’s shipment of the vaccine, although some states have had to shut down administration sites.